May Christmas cards: Ombre peace

Well, hello there! Here it is ten whole days before the end of the month, and I'm already sharing my Christmas cards for May. Look at me go! And this month I also created my cards for Ellen Hutson's May Essentials Challenge. It's a layout challenge, and I'll admit I was stuck for a bit. But I'm pleased with the end result -- a clean and simple, ombre, out-of-the-box (at least for me) Christmas card.

 

I wanted to use the Brushstroke Christmas stamp set (Essentials by Ellen) because I've had it for quite awhile and only used it, I think, once. The tricky part is that the set is primarily sentiments with a few accent images (various stars and a splatter). 

I chose the sentiment I wanted to use ("peace on earth") and decided to create an ombre effect to make the sentiment more of a focal point. I was able to achieve that really easily with a set of Color Fuse inks from Rubbernecker Stamps (I used the BG set) and my stamp positioner. I placed the white card stock layer in my stamp positioner and placed the "peace" stamp near the top right corner of the card stock. I stamped it first in the lightest blue, slid the card stock up about 5/8", stamped the next shade of blue, and repeated the process until all four colors were stamped. (Since I was working from light to dark, I didn't clean my stamp between colors, just at the end before I switched back to the lightest blue for the next piece.) I used the darkest blue to stamp "on earth" below the last "peace," then added the strip of Cool Caribbean card stock (a retired Stampin' Up! color) and a glittery silver star.

 

I used Island Indigo card stock for the card base (another retired Stampin' Up! color) and stamped three different star images using the darkest blue ink. Then I used some metallic watercolor paint to add silver splatter along the bottom and edges of the card base. I applied foam tape to the back of the white panel and attached it to the card base. I didn't add any other embellishments because I liked the clean white card stock.

I kept the inside of the card simple, with a layer of white card stock, a stamped sentiment, and a few of the stars in the lightest blue this time. What do you think of the results?

So, I mentioned in my last post that I was planning to have cards to share from my craft retreat this month. Well, the retreat was last weekend, but I didn't get to go. I wasn't feeling well a few days before (nothing contagious, thank goodness), so I let people know I wasn't sure I'd make it. I was really disappointed, but I wasn't crazy about being a four-hour drive from home if I got worse, especially since I wasn't driving myself. Then the night before I felt better, so I thought I would try to just throw some things together in the morning and see if I could still make it. But we had a big storm that night and got a ton of heavy rain in a very short period of time ... and we ended up with water in our finished basement. Sigh. So no retreat for me. 

We spent a few days trying to clean up with towels, fans, and a dehumidifier. We pulled up a bunch of carpet and flooring (all wet underneath), and then this week we had a company come in to cut out drywall, clean/spray for mold, and set up heavy duty equipment to finish drying it out. Thankfully nothing else was ruined, but now half of our basement is demolished, the stuff we had to move is all over the living room, we have to fix the landscaping on one side of the house so it hopefully doesn't happen again, and then we have to replace the flooring and walls, repaint, etc. Argh. It's a lot. Part of me is thankful I'm not working right now, because that would just be one more thing. But the other part of me knows that the income would be helpful, to say the least. I just need to figure out how to focus on job searching with everything else going on.

With all that said, I do have some other cards I've been wanting to share -- some recent, and some from a while ago -- so I will try to post those when I can. Maybe it will be a good distraction when everything else is overwhelming. :) Thanks for stopping by!